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Government's Ergonomic Plan
Displeases Employers, Unions

By

Yochi J. Dreazen Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 15, 2000 1:33 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- It all seems so repetitive.

After hundreds of hours of contentious hearings, which ended Friday after piling up testimony from more than 1,000 witnesses, the government's plan for wide-ranging ergonomic standards now appears headed for years in court.

At issue is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's aging effort to require more than 1.6 million employers to adopt basic programs to prevent repetitive stress injuries and other ailments. The regulations are aimed at protecting the estimated 1.8 million workers who report on-the-job musculoskeletal injuries each year -- with 600,000 cases severe enough to require time off. The proposed rules, which would cover employees ranging from truck drivers and package handlers to clerical and health-care workers, would require employers to monitor injured workers and to continue paying them while they recuperate.

For different reasons, both business and labor unions plan lawsuits challenging the rules.

Businesses want to block the rules, arguing they will cost far more than OSHA's $4.5 billion-a-year estimate -- the National Association of Manufacturers puts the cost at $18 billion. They also say the rules will have benefits far smaller than OSHA's estimate of $9 billion in savings on workers compensation and other costs. Business groups also say the agency has used faulty or incomplete science to justify the rules. They are counting on winning a court order forcing OSHA to revise its proposal.

For labor, the hot-button issue is a provision that triggers the new standards only after a company reports an injury. Almost all other OSHA standards call for preventive measures to be put into place when the rules go into effect, and the unions want to see a similar provision added to the ergonomics regulations. "If the final version is also reactive, rather than proactive, that's the kind of thing that would trigger a lawsuit," says Peg Seminario, a top AFL-CIO health and safety official.

Neither side is happy that OSHA's marathon hearings don't seem to be headed toward a rewrite of the proposed rules.

"Attorneys lead our strategy discussions now because all of the talk is about a lawsuit," says Al Lundeen of the National Coalition on Ergonomics, a group of more than 300 trade associations that is spearheading opposition to the regulations.

"At the end of the day," says Ms. Seminario, "a lawsuit is as important a part of the rule-making process as the hearings themselves."

Ergonomics Rules

OSHA's proposed ergonomics standards require companies to:

Assign at least one employee to be responsible for their ergonomics program

Provide employees with information on the risks of injuries and on warning signs

Compensate injured workers requiring time off with 90% of their salaries and 100% of their benefits

Analyze specific tasks to gauge risk

Change practices or equipment proven to contribute to injuries

Source: OSHA

While both camps say they won't make final decisions on lawsuits until OSHA releases its final rules later this year, they have had plenty of time to organize their arguments: An ergonomics standard has been kicking around since 1989, when then-Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole announced plans for one. Litigation could add another five years to that process.

OSHA officials, meanwhile, are resigned. "I'm confident that there will be lawsuits, and I'm confident that we'll be able to resolve both successfully," says OSHA Director Charles N. Jeffress. "The science supports our position on this, and the record from the public hearings and the written comments reflects that."

Monday, the agency will begin poring over hundreds of thousands of pages of written submissions and transcripts from the nine weeks of hearings as it decides on revisions to the proposed rules. Should the issue ultimately be resolved in the agency's favor, OSHA's Mr. Jeffress says the business community might be surprised at how painless the regulations prove to be. "Five years from now," he says, "people will wonder what all of the fuss was about."

Ergonomics opponents say they can't count on a Bush administration to restrain OSHA. "A year ago, there was talk of waiting for a new administration, but once the regulations have been published in the federal register, there isn't much he could really do," says Mr. Gilroy. "This'll be won or lost in court."